[PapaBear3625]

High volcanic activity combined with low solar cycle activity may adversely affect this year's crops.

The last time we had solar activity this low was during the Dalton Minimum. When that combined with with some severe volcanic activity we had The Year Without A Summer, resulting in food shortages and famine.

[blam]

Late Pleostocene Human Population Bottlenecks. . . (Toba)

"The six year long volcanic winter and 1000-year-long instant Ice Age that followed Mount Toba's eruption may have decimated Modern Man's entire population. Genetic evidence suggests that Human population size fell to about 10,000 adults between 50 and 100 thousand years ago."

(Recent discoveries in India are challenging these population reduction numbers)

[Jaded]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa